At the beginning of the year I had no idea what motif meant. I thought that honors english was going to be a lot harder then I had previously thought but after reading To Kill A Mockingbird I understand the meaning of motif much better. Now I know what motif is and can find what the motif is in a story. To Kill A Mockingbird helped me understand motif better because it was very clear what the motif was in the story.

The "mockingbird motif" is that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. It adds a symbolic level of meaning to the other themes of the book. The mockingbird motif allows you to compare the mockingbird motif to subjects like racism. For example, Tom Robinson was both crippled and innocent at the time of the trial but he was still "guilty". Another example of a motif would be justice versus injustice.